Predicts bright future for Finnmark
In 15 years time Finnmark will be Norway’s most important resource area and local companies will have a big advantage with their knowledge of local conditions, says a Norwegian oil analyst.
Johan Petter Barlindhaug, Chairman of the board in North Energy and founder of Barlindhaug Consult predicts a bright future for Norway’s northernmost county as the oil activity in the Barents Sea puts on speed.
Last week Norwegian oil major Statoil announced that it had discovered a large oil field on the Skrugard prospect some 200 kilometers north of the coast of Finnmark, as BarentsObserver reported.
The increased activity in the area will have large spin-off effects for the population in Finnmark, especially when it comes to the strategic location when Russian oil companies also start to focus on the Barents Sea. Barlindhaug believes the local business sector is ready to make the most of their advantages:
- In Finnmark it’s terribly cold and terribly dark. There are hardly any roads. Those who know most about local conditions will have advantage of their knowledge of local transport and logistics, he says to Aftenbladet.
Barlindhaug does not think Finnmark will be a competitor to the already established oil and gas province of Stavanger in the southwestern part of Norway, but that Stavanger and Finnmark will cooperate and complement each other. –It will be meaningless for actors in Northern Norway to try to compete with the established industry there, Barlindhaug says.
